Villagers trying to save their primary school from closing say they feel Surrey County Council has "under-valued" their opinions.

Parents and residents of Ripley are pushing for a last ditch attempt to boost support for the village school.

SCC’s consultation to close the school ends on Friday (June 22).

An extraordinary Ripley Parish Council meeting was called this week in a bid to drum up support and explain to residents how they can back the campaign.

Speaking to a packed meeting room where there was standing-room only on Wednesday (June 13), parish council chairman Jennie Cliff said: “There has been much activity regarding the future of our village school over many months.

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Ripley Primary School

“We have all got a huge collection of papers, but the majority of us are still feeling there has not been the correct level of honesty and transparency from the authorities dealing with the school.

“It’s been suggested that for several years there has been a hidden agenda to close the school.

“The parish council has a message of its own to those involved in this process and that message is that the people of Ripley are not stupid or easily duped.

“We may be very angry, we may be overwhelmed, we may be upset, sad, put-upon and undervalued, but we are not stupid or easily duped.”

Members of SCC were invited to the meeting, but said they could not attend because it would not be appropriate as they were in the middle of the consultation period.

Parents have protested the closure (Image: Kelly Brown)

Ripley CofE Primary School, in Wentworth Close, is a voluntary controlled school and maintained by SCC in partnership with the Diocese of Guildford.

In 2015 the then headteacher left and since then only interim heads have been in place.

An interim board of governors was put in place by SCC following two satisfactory/requires improvement Ofsted inspections (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills).

The board of governors resigned in 2017 when the school received a third inadequate rating and the Regional Schools Commissioner ordered it to become part of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or close.

The meeting on Wednesday (June 13) (Image: Rebecca Curley)

Parents were issued a letter in May 2017 encouraging them to “consider alternative schools to Ripley”.

Alex Tear, the Diocese director of education, and his deputy Jonathan Gambier attended the meeting to explain why they were supporting the closure and did not allow South Farnham Educational Trust to take on the school.

He said the Diocese MAT, The Good Shepherd Trust, did not think the school had a ‘viable future’ because of the amount of pupils attending and the estimated £1million repair and maintenance work he said the school needed.

And he said they felt, as a secular MAT, South Farnham Education Trust would not have upheld the religious character of the school.

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Parenting headlines

Addressing the dozens of parents and residents in the room, including former governors and staff of the school, he said: “We felt the school was failing to provide a quality of education the children deserved.

"When Surrey County Council came to us to say that they had a problem we considered putting the children right at the centre. Do the children deserve something better? We came to the conclusion that children do deserve something better and we stand by that decision.

“This is about the quality of education the children are being given.”

He agreed the letter sent to parents in May 2017 was not "an appropriate letter".

Supporters of the school argue:

Test results show Ripley out-performed national and Surrey average for Early Years and Phonics;

Other schools children may have to attend have under-performed compared to Ripley;

Some children may now have to attend non-Church of England schools; and

Lack of pavements on country roads for children having to walk to schools in other villages.

Friends of Ripley have set up a website to help residents form their response to the consultation to close the school.

They can either visit saveripleyschool.com or drop off a letter with comments at the Parish Council in High Street, Ripley.